President Donald Trump‘s desire to buy Greenland sounded like a geopolitical punchline, at first. After all, Denmark still oversees the island’s foreign affairs and defense. Then Trump’s comments became a hard-line policy, one that makes Greenlanders uneasy.
Greenland Oil And Global Energy Security
Robert Price, CEO of March GL and incoming chief of Greenland Energy Company, argues that such chokepoints expose a deeper structural problem.
“Markets react to headlines, but they often underestimate how fragile global energy flows really are,” Price said. Western economies remain deeply dependent on politically volatile regions for oil supply, he added—making new reserves in stable jurisdictions increasingly valuable.
That’s where Greenland, perhaps to its dismay, enters the conversation.
Beneath Greenland Ice: A 13 Billion Barrel Oil Basin
According to Price, the Jameson Land Basin in eastern Greenland could hold roughly 13 billion barrels of oil resource potential, based on independent geological evaluations. If even a fraction of that estimate proves recoverable, it would rank among the largest undeveloped onshore petroleum systems in the Arctic.
Price says the basin stands out not just for its size, but for how much groundwork has already been done.
More than $275 million in historical exploration and seismic studies have mapped the region, identifying over 50 potential drilling targets. The basin also shows natural oil and gas seeps with biomarker signatures similar to those found in prolific fields in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea.
In scale, Price says the basin could resemble Alaska’s legendary Prudhoe Bay Oil Field, one of North America’s largest discoveries.
That geological promise is why Pelican Acquisition Corporation is planning a merger that would take the project public as Greenland Energy Company, giving investors exposure to what Price calls “one of the Arctic’s largest untapped onshore oil provinces.”
Why Greenland Suddenly Matters
Arctic oil exploration remains limited by high costs and low crude prices. But the energy landscape has shifted.
Short-cycle U.S. shale has acted as a supply buffer for years, yet operators now face rising costs and shrinking prime drilling inventory. At the same time, geopolitical shocks—from U.S. military intervention in the Middle East to shipping disruptions—continue to remind markets how vulnerable global oil flows remain.
That dynamic is driving renewed interest in long-cycle conventional resources that could supply energy for decades.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, in January, said: “We are now facing a geopolitical crisis, and if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark.”
Image created using artificial intelligence via ChatGPT.